Turning the piggybank into an app: Dads merge chores, allowances and debit cards

Oscar Godson (left) and Adam Bickford are developing an app they call Piggybank that would allow parents to not only manage their kids' chores but also pay them for the chores by loading money onto debit cards.

(Amy Wang/The Oregonian)

Two Portland-area dads are hoping to bring kids' piggybanks into the 21st century with an app that pulls together chores, allowances and debit cards.

Oscar Godson, 24, chief executive officer of the startup Piggybank, and Adam Bickford, 27, the startup's chief technology officer, are developing an app that would allow parents to create online lists of chores for their kids, assign a dollar amount to each chore, then transfer the amount earned onto debit cards for the kids to use.

What led to the idea:

Godson, a software engineer, was working at the enterprise social network Yammer, in San Francisco, when he began thinking about ways to modernize various tasks – including how parents transfer money to their kids. In March 2013 he moved to Portland to work for Simple, an online banking company, where he learned about how money is transferred among banks, processors and credit card companies. "That was when I realized that I could actually do this," he said.

Godson recruited Bickford – their wives had met at a mutual friend's baby shower – and the two worked on the idea on weekends for about a year and a half. They've lined up a partnership with the financial processor Fiserv and an angel investor to pay Piggybank's development costs and are in talks with various banks and investors in hopes of going beta within three months.

How it works:

A screen grab from the Piggybank app, now under development in Portland.

Piggybank users will start by creating a list of family members who will assign and do chores.

"We're trying to accommodate modern family situations as much as possible," said Bickford. So the power to assign chores can be made available not only to parents but also to stepparents, grandparents or any other adult relative. Similarly, kids can be assigned chores for Dad's house, Mom's house or anywhere else they spend time.

After that, parents can create chore lists and assign a dollar value to each chore. When kids log in to the app, they'll get a list of all the chores from all the families they're assigned to. Once a kid completes a chore, he can mark it as done. The app then notifies the parent that the child says he's finished the chore.

Once a parent approves the chore, the amount the chore is worth is transferred to a debit card in the child's name. "Our hope is to have everything as real time as possible," Bickford said.

Why debit cards?

A rendering of the Piggybank debit card, which will allow parents to transfer money from their bank accounts to children in payment for chores.

Other chore-management apps, such as ChoreMonster and FamDoo, have stayed away from cash, focusing instead on points or digital stickers. The iAllowance app does involve cash but also requires dealing with banks. Godson and Bickford said they chose to go in the debit-card direction to streamline the process of giving kids money. Plus, Bickford said, "cards are kind of like a status symbol for kids."

Godson, who has two sons, ages 4 and 2, said he hopes kids will learn money management by using the Piggybank debit cards. "They earn money and they actually have this card with money on it. They can manage it ... they can see what happens if they overspend," he said.

"The neat thing with a card rather than cash," Godson added, "is that you can see what your children are buying."

Bickford, who has a 3-year-old daughter, said it's also possible to build in spending controls with a debit card. "You could say, well, the card is only active during these hours or it's only active at these stores," he said.

What if a kid tries to cheat on doing the chores?

"As parents ourselves, even though our children are pretty young, we knew that kids are sheisty and parents would want some sort of visual verification if they can't verify with their own eyes," Bickford said.

So the app allows photo and video uploads – if Mom isn't home from work yet, Junior can send her a picture or video, potentially with a time stamp, showing that his room is clean so she can transfer money onto his debit card for him to go out and get ice cream.

The video feature could serve another purpose, too, Godson said: "A parent could use the video upload in a comment to explain how to do something."

Is this a good idea?

Rich Brown, chairman of the Oregon Bankers Association Education Foundation, who works in corporate social responsibility at Bank of America, said, "Any effort that engages parents and children together addressing issues of financial literacy is important and it's good."

Brown, who wasn't familiar with the app, said of the idea of putting debit cards in kids' hands, "As long as there are the proper parental controls and oversight, then I think it's a good idea. But that oversight and parental engagement is important, particularly at a young age."

With or without the app, Brown said, parents should be making sure that their kids gain financial literacy skills. "Talk openly about money with your kids," he said. "Communicate your values and experiences with money. And encourage your kids to ask questions."

Parents should take care in particular to explain the differences between needs and wants, Brown added.

He suggested these resources for parents interested in teaching their kids financial literacy: